Our professor announced the end of class and I stood, taking Courtney’s textbook and laptop for her.
“Enjoy your cult activities,” I said to Brandon over my shoulder. His chair screeched as he shoved out of it, glowering.
Courtney grabbed me by the wrist.
“You’re a menace,” she muttered under her breath. Biting back a grin, I let her drag me outside. Low rays of sun broke through the chill to touch my face as we exited the building.
“Ollie, Courtney- wait.”
We halted, looking at each other in confusion before turning around. Clutching the strap of her expensive handbag so hard her knuckles went white, Miranda approached.
My hackles rose on instinct. “What?”
Green eyes ping-ponged between us, releasing the strap on her shoulder to twist the little gold ring she always wore around and around. In the time I’d known her, I’d never seen her so on edge.
“I felt something suspicious earlier.” She paused as if considering whether to continue. She rolled her shoulders back, decision made. “Jack said to tell you what happened.”
I raised a brow, intrigued yet skeptical. For all we knew, this could be a manipulation tactic, but either way, I was too curious not to hear her out.
“Go on.”
Miranda took a deep breath, scanning the surrounding area; students drifted in and out of buildings with an occasional bicyclist cutting through the sea of them. Satisfied that no one appeared in earshot, she faced us again.
“My best friend Serina and I got lunch with some of our sorority sisters and a few of the AEP guys today. I bumped into one of them and my hand hit his chest. He was staring at Serina when I touched him, and I don’t know how else to explain it- it felt aggressive. Predatory.”
Courtney chewed her lip, watching me closely as I processed her story. All sassiness was absent, a thread of desperation woven in her voice.
“Why would Jack have you tell us?” I asked.
She swallowed, twisting that ring around. Three times to the left, three times to the right. Again, and again and again.
“Serina- she’s like us.”
Numbness spread up my limbs.Like us.Altered before birth. Mutated by Merit. Gifted with curses.
A surge of fear and anger had me lashing out. “Why the fuck would you keep that from us for so long?”
Her typical fire returned. “It wasn’t my place.”
I ran a hand through my hair, gripping the roots. Apparently, I was right to stay on edge. There was no way the group of us met by accident.
“How did they get us all in one place without us knowing? Are we just fucking cattle-”
Courtney’s hand clamped on my arm, fierce eyes burning into me. “I don’t think they’re controlling us like that. I was drawn to you by the visions, but maybe it goes deeper,” she said, turning to Miranda. “A pull- that’s what it feels like, in the center of my chest. Have you felt anything like that?”
Miranda’s dark brows drew together, fingers fiddling endlessly with her jewelry. “In a way. I mean, I instantly felt connected to Serina. Like she understood me, if that makes sense.”
I blinked at her in shock. All my life, I avoided relationships, partly out of caution and partly out of the inability to connect with people. But when meeting Jack, my walls crumbled. I’d even been drawn to Miranda despite her manipulations. While the bond to Courtney had morphed into something much more, there were still thin threads reaching out to the others.
“Like fishing line.”
Her eyes snapped to me. “Yea.”
A thought slipped through that brief eye contact.That would explain why I believed you were my match.
I broke the connection, gritting my teeth.
“So maybe we’re brought together subconsciously, like, something ingrained in us,” Courtney mused.
